Forwarding orders automatically to the supplier (dropshipper)

[lameczla]

My client is soon opening a store and he would like to automate it in a way that all orders made on his store are automatically forwarded to the dropshipper (supplier) and ordered there.

Also all products on the store will be imported from dropshipper.

The dropshipper (supplier) has sent us their API (which is in XML format).

I am a developer myself, but I am not experienced with API's, however I would really like to learn how to do this.

So did anyone make this possible and is there any guide to do this.

If not are there any apps which would make this easier?

Thanks!

[HunkyBill]

If you want to do it yourself, download the Shopify fulfillment guide and study that. Once you realize how that works, you can add in inventory management too if you need to, Basically, the only thing you need to do is create a fulfillment service, and then when Shopify informs you there is a fulfillment to be sent to the dropshipper, you accept, and then get the fulfillment data. You then securely send that to the dropshipper using their API and they can fulfill. When they are done with a fulfillment, they either pass you the customer tracking info, or they update that themselves, but most likely, they will pass it back to you. So you just complete the fulfillment and you're done.

You can probably find many Apps that purport to do all that, pick one you figure you can afford and go to town. Saves yourself all the headaches of coding up your own fulfillment service.

[lameczla]

Could you name a few apps that can do that, since I've been searching but unsuccessfully.

There was this app called "Arigato" where you could build custom workflows with HTTP requests, but unfortunately that did not work out since my supplier's API is XML format, and the app supported only JSON.

[Tryhard]

If you need to forward customer orders to your manufacturers (dropshipper, supplier) custom XML API, then you need to code a custom "connector" using the shopify Admin API.

Your other options are to manually deliver CSV files of orders (old school), pay for a ready made 3rd party app that you will use with your supplier (risky, expensive and doesn't hook up to suppliers API), or code your own portal with the Admin API, where your supplier(s) can see, add tracking codes and fulfill orders (this is what I did).

[lameczla]

Sorry for replying again, but could you please refer me to some Shopify apps, since I've contacted like 10 supports of fulfillment, dropship apps and they all had negative response about automation.